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INCOME TAXES
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2024
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
INCOME TAXES INCOME TAXES
We are the sole managing member of Portillo's OpCo, and as a result, consolidate the financial results of Portillo's OpCo. Portillo's OpCo is treated as a partnership for U.S. federal and most applicable state and local income tax purposes. As a partnership, Portillo's OpCo is generally not subject to U.S. federal and state and local income taxes. Any taxable income or loss generated by Portillo's OpCo is passed through to and included in the taxable income or loss of its members, including us, based upon the respective member's ownership percentage in Portillo's OpCo. We are subject to U.S. federal income taxes, in addition to state and local income taxes with respect to our allocable share of any taxable income or loss of Portillo's OpCo, as well as any stand-alone income or loss generated by Portillo's Inc.
Income Tax Expense (Benefit)

The effective income tax rate for the quarters ended March 31, 2024 and March 26, 2023 was (27.0)% and 30.5%, respectively. The decrease in our effective income tax rate for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 compared to the quarter ended March 26, 2023 was primarily driven by a decrease in the valuation allowance recorded against a portion of the Company's deferred tax assets as a result of the Q1 2024 Secondary Offering, partially offset by an increase in the Company's ownership interest in Portillo's OpCo, which increases its share of taxable income (loss) of Portillo's OpCo. The Company’s annual effective tax rate differs from the statutory rate of 21% primarily because the Company is not liable for federal or state income taxes on the portion of Portillo's OpCo’s earnings that are attributable to non-controlling interests, deferred tax adjustments and impacts from equity-based award activity.

We evaluate the realizability of our deferred tax assets on a quarterly basis and establish valuation allowances when it is more likely than not that all or a portion of a deferred tax asset may not be realized. As of March 31, 2024, the Company concluded, based on the weight of all available positive and negative evidence, that all of its deferred tax assets (except for those deferred tax assets relating to the basis difference in its investment in Portillo's OpCo that will never be realizable or only reverse upon the eventual sale of its interest in Portillo's OpCo, which we expect would result in a capital loss which we do not expect to be able to utilize) are more likely than not to be realized.

Secondary Offerings
In the first quarter of 2024, in connection with the Q1 2024 Secondary Offering previously discussed in Note 1. Description Of Business, 5,832,371 LLC Units were redeemed by the pre-IPO LLC Members for newly-issued shares of Class A common stock. As a result, an increase in the tax basis of net assets of Portillo's OpCo subject to the provisions of the Tax Receivable Agreement (the "Tax Receivable Agreement" or "TRA") was recorded. The Company recorded a deferred tax asset of $17.8 million and an additional TRA liability of $33.7 million. As of March 31, 2024, we estimated that our obligation for future payments under the TRA liability totaled $328.5 million. For the quarters ended March 31, 2024 and March 26, 2023, the Company made TRA payments of $4.4 million relating to tax year 2022 and $0.8 million relating to tax year 2021, respectively. We expect a payment of $7.2 million relating to tax year 2023 to be paid within the next 12 months.